When you pull up to the Oak Bluffs transfer station to weigh in your trash, you get a friendly grin and wave from Lucie Smith. She works surrounded by American flags and shows off her garden of pansies and geraniums.

Just outside Lucie’s tollhouse are a couple of small dumpsters and a sign that reads No Scavenging Allowed. This is Lucie’s treasure chest – a place where landfill patrons drop off bottles and cans. Lucie recycles them to raise money to buy supplies and a few treats for orphans in her native Vietnam. She has been doing this work for four years, a one-woman charity organization, with the town of Oak Bluffs serving as her whole means of support.

“Here’s the scoop,” she says. “At 3 p.m., my husband comes with the van and gathers whatever is out there. Work is so hectic, every day. As soon as we get home, we sort the bottles and cans. It’s not as easy as people think to sort by brands and by can.” She pauses. “On Saturday, I put it off because I need a break. My husband Mike is the driving force.” Mike Smith is superintendent of the Edgartown cemetery. Lucie smiles. “He says he does all the work and I get all the credit.”

Lucie, who moved here in 1968, began her campaign in 2002. She recounts her experiences each year by posting a photomontage by her tollhouse window. This year she wrote a letter. Her role as a guardian angel to children halfway around the world makes contributing a few beer bottles feel more worthy than it otherwise might. “The first year I raised $3,000 and gave $2,000 of my own,” she says. “The next year I raised $4,000 and donated $1,000.”

Lucy writes, “I am happy to report that this year’s trip to Vietnam was a great success. Originally, I planned to go to an orphanage near Saigon. But upon my arrival, my family told me about another orphanage in Kontrum and suggested that we should go there instead because it is so far that the children do not get as much help as the places closer to Saigon. I do believe their prayers were answered and that it was a miracle.”

Four nuns oversee 250 children in the Kontrum orphanage. “The beauty of it all is that the older children take care of the younger ones and they are all so well behaved.” She goes on, “With the money raised I purchased on your behalf what I felt the children needed the most and I wish that each of you could be there to see their happiness.”

This year Lucie bought $5,000 worth of supplies – shoes, sandals, blankets, and towels, as well as sugar and flour and infant formula. “When it came time to say goodbye, the children gathered all around hugging us and did not want us to leave. That is when I realized that of all the things I brought to them, the most important thing they needed was a simple hug.

“I am so proud to be able to accomplish these deeds on your behalf,” Lucie tells her patrons. “I would like to remind you that [whether] you give one or many returnable cans or bottles, we can do big things for those less fortunate.”

Lucie’s goal in 2006 is to raise $6,000. “I’m not allowed to solicit or sell anything,” Lucie says. “And it’s not my right to ask for money. All I do is ask for cans. If people want to give, it’s fine. I beg without begging,” she smiles.

“My boss at BFI supports me. He gave me the dumpster.” In addition, BFI as a company contributes to her work at the transfer station. “They pledge twenty-five cents for each dollar I raise, with the stipulation that I donate to a charity on the Vineyard. I give to Camp Jabberwocky [the all-volunteer summer camp for the disabled in Vineyard Haven]. Last year they gave me $1,250 to pass on to the camp.

“I’ve been doing it since I was a little kid. When I was eight or nine my mother gave me a dollar. Kids bought junk food and all that. One night it was raining and I told my mother I felt sorry for this lady with one leg who was a beggar in front of the church. I gave her my dollar every day. It’s just within me.

“You know, we Vietnamese love to have our fortunes told. Two years ago my cousin went to a fortune teller. I tagged along. The lady said to me, ‘In a past life, you stole from the temple. Now you have to pay it back in this lifetime.’” She couldn’t know that Lucie was involved in a charity program.
Lucie’s fifth trip to Vietnam will be in March of 2006. You can see her getting ready at her window at the Oak Bluffs transfer station. Just remember to bring your cans.